Conor McGregor says he never actually spoke to Tyson Fury.
For months now, boxing heavyweight champion Fury has expressed interest in crossing over to MMA. In an interview with Sky Sports Boxing back in October, Fury said he spoke to McGregor and that he’d agreed to train him, which apparently was news to McGregor.
“Tyson keeps saying me and him spoke, and I said I’d train him,” McGregor told BT Sport on Tuesday. “I never spoke to Tyson in my life, so I don’t know why he’s saying that.”
McGregor let Fury run with it since it makes a good story. However, he does think Fury is serious about MMA and would be willing to train him.
“Tyson’s a good man. I like Tyson,” McGregor said. “He’s a great boxer, a phenomenal boxer, probably the best natural boxer in the heavyweight division at this time. So who knows. I wouldn’t say he is just saying he’d do it and not do it like a lot of them do. I’d say Tyson would probably do it in time, so you never know.
“But I found it funny that he said we talked and all this. He’s a madman Tyson. I never spoke to the man in my life.”
When McGregor and Fury do come together, it won’t be the same way Darren Till trained Fury, where Till held pads for him during a visit to his gym in Liverpool, England.
McGregor would assess Fury in a specific way.
“Maybe we could set something up. I wouldn’t be holding mitts for him or anything, but if he wanted to be trained by me or even educated by me, I’d need to see him in certain positions, in certain situations,” McGregpr said. “I need him to spar heavyweights. I need to see him deal with the leg kicks. I need to see him in bottom position, and then I’d assess that, and then I’d send them off, and then I would tell him what work he needs to do, and then off he goes. That would probably be something I could do for Tyson.”
Fury is expected to be in Las Vegas on Saturday for UFC 246, which is headlined by a welterweight bout between McGregor and Donald Cerrone.
It’s an opportunity where McGregor and Fury could meet for the first time.
Conor McGregor says he's never met Tyson Fury: 'He's a madman,' but I like him